CastAway

Chapter 9

The other first years were in the dining hall when I entered. I made myself a cup of coffee, grabbed a bagel, and sat down across from an arguing Itadori and Kugisaki. I sat down beside Fushiguro, letting him take the brunt of Gojo's incessant energy.

'Sleep well, pet?' Sukuna's voice added to the clamor.

'Leave me alone, curse.' I responded blandly while pinching the bridge of my nose.

'Do you miss me? Do you want me to fuck you senseless again?' He continued to taunt me, making me grit my teeth to stop myself from whining softly at the memory of how he felt.

'No.' I wanted that nagging yet irresistible voice out of my head so I could drink my coffee and eat my food in peace.

'All that begging tells a different story, pet.' Sukuna kept taunting me throughout breakfast, but I did my best to ignore him. I never gave him another response, I didn't even look at Itadori just in case Sukuna was paying attention to what was going on in the room.

Sukuna finally shut up when we left for the mission. He must've realized that I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of responding to his taunts. It was cloudy and raining when we arrived outside the detainment center. There were security guards in the area preventing unallowed visitors to the evacuated building. I stood in front of the building with the other first years and Ijichi, who was currently explaining the situation to us.

"Our window verified the curse womb three hours ago. Once ninety percent were successfully evacuated, they made the call to seal off the center. Citizens within a five hundred meter radius have been evacuated as well." The man who looked older than he was started, only to be interrupted.

"Ijichi-san, question. What's a 'window' here?" Itadori asked, though the question wasn't really pertinent to the situation.

"A window is a member of Jujutsu Tech who can see curses. They aren't sorcerers, though. Let's continue. Detainee block two. At present, five detainees remain there with the curse womb. If this curse womb is the type that metamorphoses, we predict it will become a special grade cursed spirit." Ijichi continued the explanation, trying to dumb it down for the boy who was always asking for clarification.

"Hey, so I still don't really understand what this 'special grade' means." Itadori butted in, finally with a relevant question.

"All right, allow me to explain it idiot level. First there's grade four, a wooden bat is enough for them. Grade three, if you have a handgun, you can rest easy. Grade two, it'll be a close call with a shotgun. Grade one, even a tank may be insufficient. Then special grade, let's say you might be on even footing if you carpet bomb it with cluster bombs." Ijichi told us, well, Itadori. Thankfully, no one had asked me about my experience with curses so they likely assumed I knew as much as Fushiguro and Kugisaki.

"Normally, a sorcerer on par with the cursed spirit would take on the mission. On a day like today, that would be Gojo-sensei." Fushiguro added in.

"I see. So, where is Gojo-sensei?" Itadori asked another applicable question. Maybe, he was finally getting smarter.

"Away on business. He's not someone who should be loafing around at the school in the first place." Fushiguro explained something that Kugisaki was probably wondering as well.

"Unfortunately, we're constantly short handed in this business. You'll often have to undertake missions beyond your power. The current case, however, is an abnormal one, and most urgent. Do not fight under any circumstances. If you encounter a special grade, your options are to either run or die. Please just listen to your fears. Do not forget that your mission here is strictly the verification and rescue of survivors." Ijichi finally told us what was important about our mission today.